Today, the Earth got a little hotter, and a little more crowded.
Froggy Know-How: A frog can shield itself from rain, but dies when its forest home is destroyed.
By threatening the world's forests, humans ultimately harm themselves.
OO Annual Global Tree Loss Keeps Slowing, But Not Enough - with a loss equal in area to two Portugals in 2014, says a new report.
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The Balding of Asia and Africa: New data, with help from Google, illustrate unprecedented -- and until now, largely overlooked -- forest loss in Southeast Asia and West Africa, among other hotspots.
Forests: the cheapest way to store carbon
OO Google Map Shows Fastest Deforestation Is Mostly In Asia, Africa
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Africans Go Hungry as richer, developed but unsustainable nations lease African cropland to grow their own food. Source buddhalightbringer.wordpress.com
OO Climate Change [and Overpopulation]To Cause The Next Genocide opines a Holocaust historian, although he never mentions "overpopulation" he refers to clearly unsustainable populations; he draws interesting parallels between then and now. Takeaways:
- Pre- WWII Germany needed to import food
- Today, many unsustainable nations are leasing land in Africa to grow their food
- the Holocaust was fueled by a war for resources: Germany felt it could not feed itself.
- Ecological panic today is fueled by unsustainable populations and climate change.
A scene from the 2011 drought in eastern Africa. Oxfam at Wikipedia
- Worsening climate change and growing populations will increase resource scarcity and unsustainability.
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Something to Think About in 2016. and maybe before. Credit Tom Toles at the Washington Post
- Final Takeaway: We should be dramatically decreasing fossil fuel use and our population growth - and electing leaders who understand this.
Related Headline:
OO The European Migrant Crisis Is A Nightmare:
The Climate Crisis Will Worsen It - warn researchers and policymakers warn, because a potentially greater driver of displacement looms on the horizon: climate change.
Daily Climate's Editor Pete Myers notes it's already a climate driven migration, given that the Syrian crisis began when drought and an exhausted aquifer forced farmers off farms and into cities.
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OO Combining Investments in Renewable Energy & Energy Efficiency
Could Cut Global Energy Demand by 25% by 2030 a new study finds, saving money, and creating jobs.
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There's the fire, and there are the farms...
OO Northwest Farms Hit Hard By Wildfires
Congress Is Clearly Informed on Climate Change by a consensus of government scientists and experts, such as former top climate scientist James Hansen; why won't they act?
OO Congressional Testimony Shows Big Consensus On Climate - Congress has all the information they need to act. Voters should be pounding on their doors, asking, "Why aren't you?"
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@@ Comparing the forming of El Nino in 1997 and 2015 - a fascinating data-based animation by NCAR shows similarities and differences, important in predicting what will happen in 2015. Like 1997, the 2015 one will be strong - but no two events are alike.
Related Headline:
Fleeing Famine: caused by an early cutoff of rains that decreased crop production. Credit Feisal Omar at Reuters
OO Somalia: Hunger Rises as El Niño Floods Loom reports the UN.
OO Mongolia In For Double Whammy: Drought Now, Killing Winter Next with up to 80% of its wheat crop wiped out,Mongollia's cold winter will likely kill much of the weakened livestock, on which people depend.
OO Papua New Guinea: Severe Drought, Floods Destroy Highland Crops
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@@ Climate Scientists Predicted the Jump in Global Temperatures - back in 2013, as the above video shows, with lots of details about where global warming heat is being absorbed and why.
This blog includes another video interview in 2014 with climate scientist Gerald Meehl, also worth watching. At 5:30 minutes, he also predicts how the planet will resume heating...
After the huge El Nino of 1997, the Pacific went into a l went into a large La Nina, or cooling, phase, that in effect, we had not come out of, until recently.
Improved climate modeling allowed scientists to predict that we would enter another warming phase within the next few years - and it has now started.
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OO The Power of Speaking Out: "Gasland" Film Drove
Key Opposition To Fracking study finds.
Related Headline:
OO Even Post-Fracking Pollutes Homes - and the local environment.
OO People Prefer Living Near Wind Turbines To Fracking Wells - poll.
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National Emission Cuts Pledges Won't Avoid This.
OO International Efforts To Cut Carbon Pollution Won't Be Enough say four European research centers,
to avoid further, even more catastrophic climate change.
Related Headline:
OO Two Degrees Of Climate Change Is Too Much even as a negotiating threshold, since impacts at that level will be even more catastrophic than we're seeing now - droughts, enormous wildfires and hurricanes, reduced food production, and species going extinct.
"You can't negotiate with the atmosphere."
OO Inadequate Pledges Mean Emissions Will Be 'Far Above' 2C Target
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Super Hurricanes Don't Listen - they destroy. NASA
OO Monster Hurricanes , Unlike Anything Ever Seen, Are Possible - says a new study, although unlikely. But climate change is creating weather that had been previously thought unlikely.
OO Climate Change: Physics Doesn't Negotiate notes Bill McKibben. Neither can we, if we are serious about a decent future for our children.
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OO California: Lawmakers Agree To Divest Largest Pension Funds From Coal
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OO Pope Francis Calls On Wealthy And Powerful To Protect Earth
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Going Viral. Credit Laurie O'Keefe at www.the-scientist.com
OO Arctic Thaw Could Unleash Giant Viruses as scientists find ancient, 30,000 yr old viruses in the permafrost that come to life when thawed.
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The Alaska Face of Climate Change - now add wildfires to the mix.
OO Alaska: Obama Highlights Climate Change;
Drilling Decision Called Hypocrisy
OO Rural Alaska: Obama Works To Speed Renewable Energy Revolution
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OO Better Health, a Key Benefit of Renewables,
Yields Big Savings says a new Harvard study, and can save a region anywhere roughly $6-210 million annually, based on the accepted dollar value of human life.
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Unexpected Thrills happen when a ferris wheel meets lightning; hikers dying from heat is more common. Source thelope.com
OO Abnormal Weather Linked To More Recreation Deaths as increased lightning and heat seem to make it worse.
OO Heat Waves And Droughts Now Are Much More Likely To Mix - throughout much of the US, even if they aren't increasing, say researchers.
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OO How Birds & Wind Turbines Can Co-exist Via Better Siting of wind farms in "sweet spots": places where the winds blow but birds don't go.
OO Wind Industry Plans Serious Changes To Protect Bats - with plans to idle turbines at low wind speeds during peak bat migration season.
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Ways With Water: From Texas to Australia, cities are creating diverse innovative ways to absorb, recycle, and use the precious resource far more than consume it. Credit Tom Fox at SWA
OO Cities Are Finally Treating Water As A Resource, not a nuisance. Diversity in innovation occurs as cities:
- Rebuild coastal reefs as storm surge protectors along the gulf coast
- Create "urban kidneys" to absorb, filter and clean water for re-use: - city wetlands- urban orchards - community gardens - floodable parks
- Integrate natural systems into city water management:
- expanding natural streams and wetlands;
- utilizng ecosystems: dunes, mangroves, and reefs for coastal storm protection.
But without dramatic cuts in carbon emissions, rising sea levels will ultimately drown all efforts.
Related Headline:
Algae from Yellowstone Park's Grand Prismatic is being used to generate energy. Credit Larry Mayer
OO New Mexico: The Key To Water Security Could Be In Sewage - as a pilot project uses heat-loving algae to clean wastewater and generate energy.
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Warming Oceans Affect All Life including this beautiful gem of a nudibranch, gliding in a California tidepool. Source www.marinebio.net
OO Warming Oceans Putting Marine Life "In A Blender" - What Will Come Out? An analysis of nearly 13,000 species of fish, invertebrates and other marine organisms is an ambitious effort to map the future ranges of ocean life.
Related Headline:
Bye-bye Oysters? Baby oysters have been killed by acid seas, harming about half of Oregon's shellfish businesses.
OO Oregon: Acid Ocean Has Harmed Half of Shellfish Businesses making most growers concerned about the worsening phenomenon. Waves of acid seas, caused by increased absorption of CO2, have killed off baby oyster stocks in shellfish hatcheries.
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There is nothing typical about massive walrus haul outs in Alaska, which now happen annually as sea ice retreats earlier each summer.
OO Alaska: 35,000 Walruses Are Crammed Onto Beaches in a tiny village.
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North American birds' habitats are being shrunk by warming temperatures, threatening their survival.
OO Over Half of North America Birds To Lose Most of Their Homes By 2100 says a new study.
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OO 2015 Summer Sea Ice Likely To Drop To 4th Lowest On Record or possibly even 2nd lowest, forecasters predict, as the ice continues its decades-long, warming-driven decline.
Watch As Sea Level Riss - as an enormous iceberg collapses into the sea.
@@ Largest Aerial View Of World's Fastest Glacier, Calving Enormous Iceberg- over a mile long.
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If we do not grow sustainably,
Our children will die inhumanely.
WHAT YOU CAN DO
Talk about how overpopulation is affecting the current migration crisis with your friends.
And there are many more actions you can do, right here.
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SOLAR KEEPS FLYING
OO Another Solar Breakthrough:
Solar Cell Absorbs Hi-Energy Light 30x More Than Regular Cells - paving the way for future development of low-cost solar cells that efficiently utilize the high-energy part of the solar spectrum.
Kochi, India: World's First Solar Airport. Source www.gizmag.com
OO India Has the World's First Solar-Powered Airport in Kochi.
OO Honduras Emerges as Central America's Solar Success Story
OO Australia: Planned Solar Farm To Test 'Cloud Predictive Technology' which, upon sensing encroaching cloudiness, will preemptively switch from solar to a more continuous power source.
Check it out here, right now!
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GOOD CLEAN NEWS
OO The US Energy Storage Business Is Growing FAST - the second quarter of 2015 saw a sixfold increase in energy storage deployment since the first quarter. Now that's fast!
OO Indian Government to Replace Streetlights With LEDs in the next 24 months, says the prime minister.
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WHAT WORKS
Speaking Out:
OO Even Big Fossil Fuel Companies Support An International Climate Agreement - including 13 of thw world's largest ones - but not Chevron, Exxon-Mobil, Hess or Occidental Petroleum.
OO Canada Supreme Court: Chevron Can Be Tried In Ontario Over Amazon Oil Pollution - allowing plaintiffs to try to collect a $9.5 billion settlement.
OO Paul Mccartney, Jon Bon Jovi & More Sing
'Love Song To The Earth'
To Support Climate Action
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WHAT DOESN'T WORK
Fossil Fuel Follies
OO Fossil Fuel CEOs Bonus Pay
Helps Sink The Climate says a new report of the 30 largest publicly held US fossil fuel companies, by encouraging reckless behavior, and is hastening a climate crisis.
Related:
OO Fossil Fuel Execs Made Twice As Much As
USA Pledged To Fight Climate Change Abroad
What Some Coal Execs Deserve. Source www.sandiegoreader.com
OO US Coal Companies Are Dying As Their Execs Grab More Cash - do you hear the gentle patter of rats deserting sinking ships?
OO Ohio: Coal Utility Trying To Force Customers To Buy Power - will that be 2 or 3 lumps?
Something Shell Should Cut Back: Its Pollution. In the Niger delta, rampant exploitation has created a living polluted hell on Earth for the people living there, thanks to Shell.
OO Shell to Ax 6500+ Jobs Globally as it prepares for an ongoing "oil price downturn that could last for several years." How about "forever"?
OO Bolivia: Indigenous Oil Protest Leader Arrested who has been critical of the country's push to drill for oil and develop mining on traditional native lands.
OO Britain: Utilities More Reliant On 'Dirty' Coal Than A Decade Ago
Wasting Energy:
Gaming Fuels Biggest Game on Earth: Climate Change - and the only way to slow this dangerous one is to cut carbon emissions as fast and far as you can. Game on!
OO Energy-Hogging Gaming Computers Could Be Far More Efficient - right now, gaming costs $10 billion worldwide annually in energy.
The average gaming computer uses as much power as three refrigerators.
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WHY WE SHOULD ACT NOW: RISING RISKS extreme weather, California dryin',
Google Weather around the world month year to get latest update from Jon Plotkin; ck the summary.
Daily Climate Change: Global Map of Unusual Temperatures, Sep 14, 2015
How unusual has the weather been? No one event is "caused" by climate change, but global warming, which is predicted to increase unusual, extreme weather, is having a daily effect on weather, worldwide.
Looking above at recent temperature anomalies, much of the US and the waters surrounding it are experiencing warmer than normal temperatures: the eastern Pacific warm spot continues to prevent much rain from reaching the West Coast, sending it into further drought, fueling further wildfires, and threatening farms.
Much of the areas surrounding the North Pole are experiencing much warmer than normal temperatures - not good news for our Arctic thermal shield of ice. Hotter than usual temperatures continue to dominate human habitats.
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There is, of course, much more news on the consequences and solutions to climate change. To get it, check out this annotated resource list I've compiled, "Climate Change News Resources," at Wordpress.com here. For more information on the science of climate change, its consequences and solutions you can view my annotated list of online information resources here.
To help you understand just what science does and does NOT do, check this out!
Every day is Earth Day, folks, as I was reminded by this pink Chrysanthemum I photographed one summer. Making the U.S. a global clean energy leader will ensure a heck of a lot more jobs, and a clean, safe future. If you'd like to join the increasing numbers of people who want to TELL Congress that they will vote for clean energy candidates you can do so here. It's our way of letting Congress know there's a strong clean energy voting bloc out there. For more detailed summaries of the above and other climate change items, audio podcasts and texts are freely available.
